Leakage reduction with a surface-penetrating sealant around stainless-steel orthodontic brackets bonded with a light cured composite resin.

In this study a surface penetrating sealant was used around bonded stainless steel orthodontic brackets. The investigation attempted to identify the effect of surface penetrating sealants on the microleakage associated with orthodontic stainless steel brackets bonded with light cured composite resin. A total of 58 bovine teeth were used for this study, orthodontic brackets were bonded with light cured orthodontic resin. The following groups were assigned: (I) Finished but unsealed, (II) Finished and sealed, and (III) Un-finished but unsealed. The brackets were activated using orthodontic elastics, stained, sectioned, and evaluated under magnification. The following statistical analysis was done Mann-Whitney U test for two independent samples, then confirmed with a Kruskal-Wallis One-Way analysis of variance by ranks. The second and third groups were statistically better in respect of marginal integrity as compared to the first.